Category Archives: Instruction

Even the most ignorant of gun enthusiasts typically know that at your friends is not a safe direction to point a gun. Yet too many act as though anywhere else is okay. Even at a range with official rules and perhaps even RSOs present to help enforce the rules, it seems that “pointed down range” is believed to mean pointed anywhere in the hemisphere beyond the vertical plane that is the shooting line.

Before today, I had never introduced a non-shooter to shooting. I’ve been shooting for a number of years, but had been reasonably content with working on my own skills. I had had numerous opportunities to introduce others to shooting sports in the past, but wasn’t confident in my coaching skills, and lost the opportunities. So recently I decided to bone up on my skills, both shooting and coaching.

Yesterday, I finally, got my first chance to introduce two non-shooters to the sport. These two, a married couple, were clearly supporters of our Second Amendment rights, staunch ones at that. But it was principle that drove their support, not first hand experience. Bob had only shot carbines during Air Force basic training over 40 years ago. Other than that, neither had firearms experience of any sort.

I opted to ease them into the experience of learning to shoot a pistol over three separate sessions, the first being “classroom-style” at my home, covering the basics of firearm safety, and fundamentals of shooting such as sight picture, stance, grip and trigger control, hold, etc. I used actual firearms in this session to demonstrate various things and it was clear that Eva was a bit apprehensive being around the handguns right at the start. Continue reading